Step block assembly



July 8, 1969 M. A. FRANK. SR ISTEPBLOCK ASSEMBLY Filed July 11, 1966 Fig./

Fig.3

' Fig.4

INVENTOR. Milton 4. Frank, 5!.

United States Patent 3,454,270 STEP BLOCK ASSEMBLY Milton A. Frank, Sr., Frederick, Md., assignor to the' United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army Filed July 11, 1966, Ser. No. 564,447 Int. Cl. B23q 3/02; B25b 1/02, /02

U.S. Cl. 269-91 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates in general to a step-block assembly and more particularly to a step-block assembly having utility in machine shop operations in the alignment and securing of work for milling, planing, or drilling operations.

Step-block assemblies comprising a triangular shaped bottom and top component having teeth along the entire length of their hypotenuse are known. In the prior art devices, the teeth of the top block mesh with the teeth of the bottom block, thereby permitting the top block of the step-block assembly to be aligned in various positions relative to the bottom block, dependent upon the height of the object being worked on. One of the difliculties encountered with prior art step-block assemblies is that the top triangular component has a tendency to slip oif the bottom triangular component. The instant invention overcomes the prior art difliculty by means which hold the meshed top and bottom step-block securely together while permitting them to be moved relative to each other whenever desired.

It is an object of the present invention to provide and disclose an improved step-block assembly.

A further object of the invention is to provide and disclose an adjustable step-block assembly.

A further object of the invention is to provide and disclose a securely adjustable step-block assembly.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the following description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which FIGURE 1 shows a horizontal sectional view of the step-block assembly.

FIGURE 2 shows an end view of the bottom component of the step-block assembly.

FIGURE 3 shows an exploded view of a modified stepblock assembly.

FIGURE 4 shows a horizontal sectional view of a modified top component of the step-block assembly.

FIGURE 5 shows a horizontal sectional view of a modified bottom component of the step-block assembly.

Referring now to the drawing, the step-block assembly comprises a tringular shaped bottom component having sides 13 and 15, and two parallel rows of teeth-like projections or engaging means 17 along its hypotenuse. The

ice

top section of the step-block assembly also comprises a triangular shaped component 21 having sides 23 and 25, and a single row of teeth-like projections or engaging means 27 positioned along its hypotenuse. The dimensions of top component 21 are substantially smaller than bottom component 11. The teeth-like projections, or engaging means of bottom component 11 are suitably contoured to mesh with the teeth-like projections or engaging means of top compent 21. Bottom component 11 contains channel 19, which comprises a cross-like configuration, positioned immediately below projections 17 and in a plane parallel thereto. Top component 21 contains interior channel 29, which comprises reduced section 31 formed by shoulders 35, extending therethrough in a plane substantially perpendicular to its hypotenuse.

Channel 29 is adapted to receive spiral spring 39 and externally threaded screw 41, which comprises an elongated cylindrical configuration. Spiral spring 39 and threaded screw 41 are coaxially positioned within channel 29 as shown in FIGURE 1, the screw being circumferentially encompassed within the spring. Reduced section 31 of top component 21, which is formed by shoulders 35, is suitably contoured to receive threaded screw 41 while rejecting spiral spring 39. The extreme end of screw 41 is threadably attached to an anchor means, e.g., flat nut 37, which is positioned in the traverse or wide section of channel 19. Flat nut 37 is suitably contoured so as to be freely movable along the entire length of the traverse or wide section of channel 19 while at the same time confined therein.

Spiral spring 39 is compressed within channel 29' by means of shoulders 35 and the head of threaded screw 41. While in a compressed condition, spiral spring 39 exerts a stress against the hypotenuse of top-component 21 of the step-block assembly. Since threaded screw 41 is anchored to flat nut 37, which is positioned in the traverse section of channel 19 of the bottom-component of the step-block assembly and spiral spring 39 is compressed in channel 29 of the top-component of the step-block assembly, the compressional forces exerted on spiral spring 39, by its confinement within channel 29, secures the bottom and top-components of the step-block assembly when the teeth-like projections of the components are engaged.

When assembled, threaded screw 41 is screwed sufliciently into flat nut 37, thereby exerting a compressional stress on spiral spring 39, so as to hold the teeth-like projections of bottom-component 11 firmly meshed within the teeth-like projections of top-component 21. To change the position of top-component 21 of the step-block assembly relative to bottom-component 11, spiral spring is further compressed manually by disengaging the teeth of the top-component from those of the bottom-component. When the teeth of the two components are disengaged, top-component 21 can be moved to any position along the hypotenuse of the bottom-component 11 by the positioning of flat nut 37 within the traverse section of channel 19. When top-component 21 has been moved to its desired location along the hypotenuse of bottom-component 11, it is released and the teeth of the two components snap back into a mesh position by virtue of the action of spiral spring 39.

Top component 21 may be modified to include cylindrical well 33 extending from the surface of side 23 in a downward direction therefrom as shown in FIG. 4. Well 33 comprises an upper unthreaded portion and a lower threaded portion. The threaded section of wall 33 is suitably contoured to receive an ordinary threaded bolt, not shown. Thus, a work piece clamp may be attached to top-component 25 of the step-block assembly. In addition, the unthreaded section of well 33 is suitably contoured to receive an ordinary stud. Therefore in addition 3 to the utilization as a work piece clamp, the step-block assembly may be utilized as a jig, e.g., to maintain mechanically the correct positional relationship between a piece of work and the tool in an operation for the drilling of several holes, wherein the desired holes are equidistant each from the other.

Furthermore, bottom-component 11 may be modified to include cylindrical well 45 extending from the surface of side 13 in an upward direction therefrom and cylindrical well 46 extending from the surface of side 15 in a horizontal direction therefrom as shown in FIG. 3. Wells 45 and 46 intersect in the interior of bottom-component 11. Each of the intersecting wells are suitably contoured to receive support stem 43 which comprises a cylindrical configuration having bore 50 extending laterally through the upright stem at a position near the top section thereof and threaded portion 47 at the lower or projecting end thereof. Threads 47 of stem 43 are suitably contoured to be compatible with the internally threaded section, not shown, of adjustable nut 48 as shown in FIG. 5. The nut may be positioned anywhere along threaded section 47 of stem 43 depending on the dimensions of the support to which the surface of sides 13 and 15 of the bottom component of the step-block assembly is desired to be clamped. Bore 52 extends from the surface of bottomcomponent 11 to the interior thereof in a plane equal to well 46 and is suitably contoured to receive eccentric clamping device 49. The extreme segments of wells 45 and 46, and bore 52 intersect in the interior of bottomcomponent 11. Stem 43 is secured and locked within wells 45 and 46 by means of eccentric clamping device 49 which comprises reduced sections 53 suitably contoured to be compatible with bore 50 of support stem 43.

Illustrative, but without limitation, a step-block assembly within the scope of this invention has the following size characteristics: A triangular shaped bottom-component having sides 3 /8 by 2%" in thickness, a triangular shaped top-component having sides 1%" by 1 and being 1" in thickness.

Although I have described my invention with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

I claim:

1. An adjustable step-block assembly, having utility in machine shop operations, comprising a triangular shaped bottom-component having engaging means along its hypotenuse, a triangular shaped top-component having engaging means along its hypotenuse, the dimensions of the top-component being smaller than the dimensions of the bottom-component, the engaging means of the bottom-component being suitably contoured so as to mesh with the engaging means of the top-component, an interior channel positioned immediately adjacent the hypotenuse of the bottom-component and in a plane parallel thereto, an interior channel traversing the top-component in a direction substantially perpendicular to its hypotenuse, mobile anchor means positioned in the interior channel of the bottom-component, spring fastening means positioned in the interior channel of the topcomponent and attached to the anchor means for meshing the engaging means of the top and bottom-components and securing the top-component to the bottom component, work support means attached to the top-component and clamping means attached to the bottom component.

2. A device in accordance with claim 1 wherein the channel positioned in the bottom-component comprises a cross-like configuration.

3. A device in accordance with claim 1 wherein the engaging means comprise teeth-like projections.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 608,628 8/1898 Wigtil 8ll30 1,084,352 1/1914 Matthews 269165 X 2,867,909 1/1959 Keller 33-l62 2,876,552 3/1959 Zelnick 33-162 FOREIGN PATENTS 888,296 8/1943 France.

0 ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner.

JAMES F. McKEOWN, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

